The African National Congress (ANC) has been accused of prioritizing its own survival over the country's future. According to current affairs analyst Nhlanhla Mbatha, the ANC has transformed from a liberation movement building a future to a retirement home managing its own decline, and with it, the decline of South Africa. Mbatha argues that the party's governance style has shifted from solving problems to slowing the rate at which its failures become undeniable.
The ANC's inability to reliably deliver basic services such as electricity, water, roads, and safety has been highlighted as a major concern. Despite being in power for 30 years, often with absolute majorities, the party has failed to address these issues. Loadshedding, a persistent power outage problem, was paused not due to a resolution of the issue but because it was an election liability. The debt and maintenance backlog at Eskom, the state-owned power utility, remain unresolved.
The water crisis is emerging as the next major challenge for the ANC. In several areas, including Bronkhorstspruit, Makhanda, Johannesburg, Hammanskraal, Giyani, and Nelson Mandela Bay, residents are drinking unsafe water or have no access to water at all. Instead of presenting a plan to fix the issue, the ANC has opted for press conferences to manage the headlines. Critics argue that this approach is a clear example of decline management rather than nation-building.
The economy is another area where the ANC's decline management approach has been criticized. South Africa has not experienced meaningful economic growth in 15 years, and youth unemployment remains above 60%. Rather than creating an environment conducive to investment, small business development, and skills acquisition, the ANC has relied on patronage. The public sector wage bill and social grants have become tools to maintain a dependent constituency, while the private economy that funds them continues to shrink.
The ANC's approach to broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) has also been criticized for creating a small, politically connected elite rather than a broad base of black industrialists. State-owned enterprises such as SAA, Transnet, Prasa, and Denel have been looted and collapsed, only to be recapitalized with public funds while ministers claim they are being "turned around". Critics argue that this is a clear example of life support rather than reform.
Accountability is another area where the ANC has been found wanting. Despite the exposure of state capture in thousands of pages at the Zondo Commission, few senior ANC leaders have been held accountable. Corruption is not punished but rather rotated, with implicated officials redeployed to other provinces. This approach teaches young cadres that loyalty is more valuable than competence, making decline inevitable.
The ANC's 40% vote share in the 2024 elections was a historic rejection, but the party's response was not a deep ideological renewal or a purge of corruption. Instead, it opted for a government of national unity designed to maintain power while outsourcing economic credibility to other parties. South Africans have intuitively responded by expecting to work around the state's failures, from buying water tanks to hiring private security. The tragedy, according to Mbatha, is that South Africa does not lack talent, money, or ideas but a governing party willing to prioritize the country's future over its own survival.
Key points
- ANC's governance style has shifted from nation-building to decline management
- Party's inability to deliver basic services has been highlighted as a major concern
- ANC's approach to accountability and corruption has been criticized for being ineffective
